A 10-episode audio mini-podcast anime drama that plays out online in an interactive Easter egg hunt fashion launches today. It starts out with a social media clue that leads the participant to call a number that then guides them to a website.
From there the user will enter Sumomo City, and the adventure begins. The game, hosted on Gather.town, is a custom free-to-play metaverse world that has been built to tell the story of Takeshi and his lost dog Koro. By exploring the world, the player will participate in an interactive adventure to find Koro and return him to his owner. The player will explore the town, a cafe, a Japanese ramen shop, a private screening room, and an alien spacecraft in outer space in a funny and endearing experience.
To assist in the world build, Bang Zoom! partnered with Sunweaver Creative, a leader in interactive narrative development. “We have enjoyed collaborating on this new way of storytelling. We are excited for everyone to get the chance to explore this amazing adventure,” said Sunweaver Creative founder Shawn Strider.
With the support of the Gather.town team, it’s estimated that KOROKORO will capture around 200,000 unique daily viewers. After years of creating English Language versions of anime, Eric ‘Herman’ Sherman stated “as the owner of Bang Zoom! Studios, I went to my roots as a writer and director to create an original work called KOROKORO. This experiment of Anime and Audio had an unexpected result: Audio Anime. These are easily digestible episodes, each around 30 seconds long. The entire series is 10 episodes, so as you can see, it’s not much of a time commitment!”
At the end of the series, and as a thank you for participating, the user is able to download a free gift and encouraged to help support animal rescue; a high-resolution poster of the show was designed by a renowned anime studio in Tokyo called D’ART SHTAJIO, run by the wonderful Arthell Isom. D’ART Shtajio is an American owned 2D animation studio creating authentic Japanese quality animations.
The cast is composed of veteran and new discoveries, including two beloved voice actors (known as seiyuu) who lent their voices from Japan. Nana Mizuki, well-known from NARUTO and Ayumi Ito, most known for playing the role of Tifa Lockheart in the Final Fantasy franchise, as well as the star of the award-winning film Swallowtail Butterfly.
KOROKORO was created at Bang Zoom! Studios in Burbank, CA. The same studio where countless anime titles (such as Demon Slayer, One-Punch Man, Sword Art Online And Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure) have been cast, recorded, and mixed by Emmy-award winning engineers.
KOROKORO’s supporting friends are:
– Pumpkin: An insurance provider, founded to help ensure pets live their longest and healthiest lives.
– Hera The Dog: Founded to help create a sustainable funding resource for grassroots animal rescues all over the world by donating a portion of proceeds from every bottle of Hera sold.
– Gentle Barn: We stand up for the innocent, and we help animals and children alike remember that they matter. We open people’s hearts to connections with nature. We open people’s minds to what is happening around us. And we inspire people to be an integral part of the solution. Home to Cow Hugging Therapy!